OVERVIEW

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Brief Synopsis

A jury hold-out tries to prove the defendant''''s innocence.

At the trial of ex-chorus girl and accused murderer Yvette Gordon, society matron Mrs. Livingston Baldwin Crane is selected to serve as a juror. Although her behavior in court is at times disruptive and always unorthodox, Mrs. Crane questions the witnesses with more intuitive candor than the lawyers in charge. In spite of damning testimony from Evelyn Snow, the Gordon housemaid, Mrs. Crane becomes convinced that the defendant is innocent of killing her rich, elderly husband. Consequently, during the first ballot, she casts the only "not guilty" vote, forcing another ballot and a discussion about the case among the jurors. By manipulating the other jurors' prejudices and desires, the seemingly disingenuous Mrs. Crane gradually changes the vote until, on the fourth ballot, the count is ten to two in favor of acquittal. Before the evening break, Mrs. Crane tricks the bailiff into passing a note to Suzanne, her maid, with an order to contact a detective agency. Then, to prevent a threatening reversal in the vote the next morning, Mrs. Crane demands that they recreate the murder at the Gordon house. After she and Jay J. Presley, the head juror and last holdout, show that Mr. Gordon could have accidentally shot himself during a struggle, they discover Gordon's nephew Chauncey hiding in a secret room. At the same time, Suzanne arrives with a message from the detective agency, which proves that Chauncey paid Miss Snow $10,000 to lie at the trial so that he would inherit his uncle's fortune, thus ending happily Mrs. Crane's judicial duties.